Rafael dos Anjos

MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani is reporting that Nick Ring vs. Constantinos Philippou has been scratched from tonight’s UFC 154 card. According to Helwani’s tweet, Ring was not feeling well and the doctor refused to clear him.

Philippou’s manager, Lex McMahon, told Helwani that the UFC will not be seeking a last minute replacement for Ring.

The removal means at Mark Bocek vs. Rafael Dos Anjos will be moved to the main card and Antonio Carvalho vs. Rodrigo Damnn will now fight on the FX card.

All of the participants for the UFC 154: St. Pierre vs. Condit card successfully made weight in preparation for their bouts Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec.

The event will be headlined by a UFC welterweight title unification bout featuring current champion Georges St. Pierre and interim champion Carlos Condit. The co-main event will feature a number one contender bout between Martin Kampmann and Johny Hendricks.

The past few days following the completion of Saturday’s UFC 93 event in Ireland have brought forth a slew of potential fight announcements involving upcoming events being put on by the UFC and WEC. Let’s get right to them:

— One-time WEC featherweight title challenger and longtime veteran Jeff Curran will reportedly make his bantamweight debut against Urijah Faber-protege Joseph Benavidez at WEC 40 on April 5 according to MMA Weekly. The event, which will likely take place in Chicago, will be headlined by WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres defending his title against Brian Bowles.

— Former International Fight League standout Bart Palaszewski will reportedly take on Richard Crunkilton in a lightweight bout at WEC 39 on March 1 according to MMA Junkie, which is also stating that the winner of the bout could receive a title shot against the winner of this weekend’s upcoming lightweight title fight between current champion Jamie Varner and top contender Donald Cerrone.

In the second round Lesnar landed a punch that sent Couture to the mat. Lesnar then jumped on Couture, landing a big hammer-fist, and then continued to punch and punch until the fight was stopped. Four fights into his MMA career, and Brock Lesnar is the UFC heavyweight champion. It was good to finally see a heavyweight championship fight, but with Lesnar becoming champ so fast it’ll be interesting to see how the former WWE star is received as UFC champ by MMA fans, and general sports fans alike.

Both Stephens and dos Anjos have reportedly agreed to fight on the card and bout agreements are expected to be signed and returned shortly. The fight will likely be one of UFC 91’s non-televised preliminary bouts.

Stephens, who turned heads with his performance against veteran Din Thomas at UFC 71 last year, had a three-fight win streak snapped at the hands of fellow Miletich Fighting Systems product Spencer Fisher at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale in June. Fisher defeated Stephens by unanimous decision.

A training partner of UFC veteran Marcio Cruz, dos Anjos is currently riding a nine-fight winning streak that stretches back to October 2006. He last earned a split decision over Japanese fighter Takafumi Otsuka at Fury FC 6 on July 12 in Brazil.